It might be hard to believe, but there was a time when Christmas was banned in Scotland. In fact, it was not recognised as a public holiday until 1958.
Winter festivals have been celebrated in Scotland for hundreds of years. It was in the 4th Century that the celebration of the Birth of Christ, or Christmas, began to be celebrated in December to coincide with the Pagan winter festivals. During the Medieval period and the Middle Ages people celebrated the Twelve Days of Christmas, starting on December 25th and ending on January 6th, or Epiphany. Similar to celebrations today, people ate mince pies, had feasts, and shared gifts.
But by the 16th Century the Reformation had started in Europe and the ideas of religious reform made its way up across the British Isles to Scotland. I won’t get into it too much because it would take a lot more than a paragraph to go into detail, but it basically resulted in the national religion changing from Roman Catholicism to Presbyterianism. Under the new church, many of the Catholic traditions were banned, including the celebration of Christmas. The Act Discharging the Yuletide Vacance (Vacation) was passed in 1640. It stated:
“the kirk within this kingdom is now purged of all superstitious observation of days…and rescind, and annul all acts, statutes and warrants and ordinances whatsoever granted at any time heretofore for keeping of the said Yule vacation, with all custom of observation thereof, and find and declare the same to be extinct, void and of no force nor effect in time coming.”
The Presbyterian Church of Scotland believed that because such celebrations were never in the Bible they should not be celebrated by Christians, and also noted that Jesus was probably not born in December at all. They did not want their religious celebrations taking place at the same time as Pagan winter festivals.
The law was later repealed in 1712 under George I. In Georgian England the festive celebrations started on St Nicholas’ Day on December 6th and did not end until Twelfth Night on January 6th. They had parties and ate dinners together and gave one another gifts. During the Victorian period people began to decorate Christmas trees, shared Christmas cards, and had feasts of goose and fruit puddings.
But in Scotland the Church largely frowned upon these traditions. Many people got up in the morning and went to work, going about their daily business. Instead they began to think about the preparations for the most important party at the end of the year: Hogmanay.
Hogmanay is the traditional Scottish winter holiday. For many, it still is the biggest and most highly anticipated party of the year. Tens of thousands of people attend the street parties in Edinburgh, and that’s not counting the local festivities up and down the country. In Glasgow there is a festival of music at the Fruitmarket, and previous years have seen massive ceilidhs in George Square. In Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, locals flock to the high street at midnight to watch people fling great balls of fire around. It is believed that the fire wards off evil spirits going into the new year.
In the days leading up to Hogmanay, Scots would begin ‘Redding the house.’ People made sure that their bills were paid and their houses in order before the beginning of the new year. Sweeping the ashes from the fireplace was an especially important part of the tradition; they could be used to predict your future in the year to come. It was said that an untidy house would bring bad luck.
Come midnight, many Scots hoped to have a tall, dark stranger come across their threshold. This tradition called ‘first footing‘ was said to bring good fortune. It is believed to date as far back as the Viking period, when having a tall, blond Norseman appear at your door wasn’t exactly the sign of good luck. The first-footer brought gifts for the household. Traditionally these gifts were whisky, shortbread, salt, coal and a silver coin; these represented good fortune, warmth, food for the family, and good cheer for the coming year. Nowadays people don’t tend to participate in this tradition, but it is something that people still talk about from their childhoods.
Probably the most famous tradition, and one we get to share all over the world, is the singing of Robert Burns’ beautiful Auld Lang Syne. The song was written in 1788, although some of the lyrics were taken from a song written by a man called James Watson in 1711. The song is about remembering days gone by; the words auld lang syne translate from Scots as ‘old long since’, or ‘long long ago’. It is sung at midnight on New Years in countries across the globe, from Australia, China and to Europe and the USA. In Scotland the party goers join hands in a circle, cross-armed, and at the last verse rush into the middle of the circle and back again – you can only imagine the chaos after several hours of celebratory drinking…
On New Years Day, the men of Kirkwall flock to the streets to take part in The Ba’. This is one big ball game in which the two sides of the town (the Uppies and the Doonies) fight to get the ball to their goal. The scramble for the ball (the ba’) is akin to a rugby scrum, but without the rules. The tradition can go for several hours before the winner manages to get it to the goalpost. Following World War Two there was a Woman’s Ba’, but this was subsequently banned for being violent, although it is probably more likely that there was a backlash to seeing women participate in a potentially violent game, rather than the threat of playing the game itself.
In the 1980s a new tradition appeared: The Loony Dook. Each year on the 1s of January people flock to the banks of the River Forth at South Queensferry to take a dip in the freezing banks, often in costumes.
This year has been such a weird year; sometimes scary, sometimes funny, and others just downright stupid. I think after all of that we are all deserving of a safe, happy festive season whichever holidays you are celebrating, or maybe not celebrating!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!x
Rachel's Fact Files 